Greenland ice melt hits rare levels

GlobalPost

New images from three satellites show large scale surface ice melting in Greenland, according to MSNBC.

Really, really, large scale.

It’s unprecedented, at least in the 20th and 21st centuries, according to USA Today. The last time Greenland’s Summit station saw this kind of melting, it was 1889.

"This was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: Was this real or was it due to a data error?" said one researcher, according to Newser.

Of course, it’s the summer, and some ice loss is expected. The going rate is about 50 percent. But from July 8 to July 24, 97 percent of Greenland's surface ice melted, according to Live Science.

The sultry culprit behind the melt is what's known as a “heat-dome." Live Journal interviewed University of Georgia, Athens climatologist Thomas Mote, who said a pocket of warm air above Greenland had "coincided with the extreme melt."

Time spoke with NASA's chief scientist Waleed Abdalati, who said such massive melting "makes you sit up and ask what's happening. It's a big signal, the meaning of which we're going to sort out for years to come."

It's worth noting that a giant iceberg the size of Manhattan separated from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland earlier this month. 

More from GlobalPost: Greenland: Giant iceberg breaks from Petermann Glacier

"If we continue to observe melting events like this in upcoming years, it will be worrisome," Lora Koenig, a glaciologist, told the Guardian.

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